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XXXIII
ROBINSON BUILDS A BOAT
Robinson had wished for a boat many times. He wished to explore the
shore of his island. He wanted to go clear around it so that he might
see it on every side. But he knew the work of making a boat would be
great, if not wholly impossible.
The shaping of boards to build a boat with his rude tools was not to
be thought of. He knew how the Indians made boats out of bark of
trees. But he saw that for his purpose so light a boat would not do.
He finally remembered a second Indian way of making a boat by
hollowing out a large log. The forest was full of the boles of trees
that had been blown down. But they were far away from the shore. At
first he did not think of this very much. He had overcome so many
difficulties that he thought, "Never mind, I will get my boat to
water, no matter where I make it, in some way." So he selected a tree
trunk some distance from the bank of the little creek near his cave
and began work.
He had first to burn out his log the proper length and hack it into
boat shape with his stone tools. This was very slow and tedious work.
He had to handle the fire with great care for there was always the
danger of spoiling the shape of the slowly forming boat. Both ends
must be sharpened, but one more than the other to form the prow or
forward going end. After he had shaped his boat, he began hollowing
it out. This he did also by burning for the most part. He used the
branches of pitch bearing trees for this purpose. But it was so slow.
He worked at his boat all the time he could spare from his regular
duties in attending to his goats, his garden and his cave. He was
always making his cave larger. Every time he made a piece of furniture
or stored away grain he must make more room in his cave by digging
away the earth and carrying it out. He had made a large strong wicker
basket for this purpose.
He had had a vague idea that when he got his boat done he would dig
a trench back from the bank of the creek and thus float his boat. But
he had not thought it out clearly. "Or anyway," he thought, "I can
in some way manage to roll it to the water." He must now actually plan
to put some of these ideas into effect. He first went over the ground
and found that to dig a trench from the water to the boat, so that
the water would come to the boat, he would have to dig it twenty feet
deep. "I can never do this," he said, "with my poor tools."
He next tried his rolling plan. But he had been so anxious to have
a large boat that he had overlooked everything else. Try as hard as
he might he could not stir his boat from the spot. After many trials
with the longest levers he could handle, the boat still stuck fast.
It would not budge an inch. He at last gave it up. "It will lie here,"
he thought, "to remind me how foolish it is to attempt to do anything
without first having thought it out carefully."
There was nothing to do but to choose another tree trunk. This time
he selected a much smaller one, and one that lay at the top of the
little slope or incline from the bank of the creek. After another weary
six months of work he had his second boat ready for launching. With
a good stout lever he gave it a start, when it rolled quickly down
into the water. Robinson again wept for joy. Of all his projects this
had cost him the most work and pains and at last to see his plans
successful filled him with delight.
The next problem was how to make it go. He had no certain knowledge
how far it was around the island, but he knew it was farther than he
wanted to row or paddle his boat. Yet he knew from the way the wind
blew that he could not always depend upon a sail to help him. He must
become skillful in paddling his boat. A sail too would be very helpful
at times. He imagined how pleasant it would be sitting in the boat
sailing along with a gentle wind. "When the wind is favorable," he
thought, "I will only have to steer with my paddle."
So he set about weaving a sail of his sisal fibre. To do this he had
to make a much larger loom than he had yet used. His sail must be at
least four feet square. He was now so skilled in weaving that this
was soon finished. He then made plenty of string, cord, and rope, put
in a mast and was ready to sail. But he did not venture far away until
he had spent weeks and weeks in learning to steer, sail, and paddle
his boat.
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Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
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